The wireless industry is undergoing evolutionary and revolutionary changes whose ramifications upon the in-building ecosystem conjure the proverb, “May you live in interesting times” – an adage that has the double-meaning of a blessing and a curse or, stated differently, opportunity and threat. These interesting times include megatrends such as 5G, as well as market-level trends like segment saturation.

To ensure successful outcomes and avoid myriad perils, organizations must focus the right groups on the right things at the right times.

This multi-part series examines five key trends and how they’ll impact the in-building wireless ecosystem in 2017 and beyond. Related, we will forecast when each trend will be felt by the industry and advise which key functional areas (R&D, marketing, sales) should be focused on it in 2017.

First up: 5G.

A Transformation as Important as the Industrial Revolution

The wireless industry undergoes technology and architecture changes in 10 year increments. The 1980s provided first generation mobile voice services; the 1990s, voice capacity and text services with 2G; the 2000s, rudimentary data services with 3G; and the 2010s, mobile internet and densification via heterogeneous networks with 4G.